Back in the USSA

Critics of Obamacare have argued, from the beginning, that it was going to raise costs. So it came as no surprise to most sentient beings that companies announced, this week, that they were going to have to face corporate losses that are a result of it’s passage.

On top of AT&T’s $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks.

Perhaps that explains why the Administration is now so touchy. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, “In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them.” In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said “for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

Did I read that correctly? They are going to haul this companies in and question them? Or, should I say, intimidate them?

In other words, shoot the messenger. Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don’t like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet.

9 Comments on “Back in the USSA”

Are we expected to trust any numbers that these congressmen cite? When they are at odds with projections created in the accounting departments of solid successful businesses, I’m going to go with the businesses’ numbers.

Think about it. Congress asked the CBO to score the cost of the first ten years of the bill. But $17billion is spent in the first four years, and $923billion is spent in the last six. The bill should have been scored starting in 2014, and then we would have seen a ten year cost of $1.5TRILLION.

How stupid do you have to be to believe Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman?